South Koreans headed to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new president after months of political turmoil. But whoever wins faces daunting challenges, including trying to fix a sputtering domestic economy and navigating tensions between its ally the United States and China.
The campaign has pitted Lee Jae-myung, the candidate of the centrist Democratic Party, against Kim Moon-soo, who represents the conservative People Power Party. Pre-election surveys showed that Mr. Lee would be more likely to win.
Mr. Lee has pledged to heal his deeply polarized country and boost its economy. He has also championed more balanced diplomacy, promising to mend his country’s strained relations with China and North Korea while maintaining the alliance with the United States as the bedrock of national security. If Mr. Kim wins, he would likely continue the conservative foreign policy of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, which focused on strengthening ties with Washington and Tokyo at the cost of antagonizing Pyongyang and Beijing.
The voting started across South Korea at 6 a.m. and will end at 8 p.m. The results of a joint exit poll by the country’s three main broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS will be released soon after the polls close. Enough of the votes will have been counted by early Wednesday for the nation to learn who has won, polling experts said.
South Korea’s political turmoil began when Mr. Yoon, unpopular throughout his three years in office, tried to seize the opposition-controlled National Assembly by military force during his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. He was later impeached by the Assembly and in April was formally expelled from office by the Constitutional Court, opening the way for Tuesday’s election.
As such, the election was contested largely as a referendum on Mr. Yoon and the People Power Party, which had nominated and supported him as president.
“This election is about judging the previous government,” said Heo Jinjae, a research director at Gallup Korea, a polling company. “The martial law and the impeachment were such dominant issues that most other issues didn’t rise to the surface.”
South Korea has been led by one unelected acting president after another since Mr. Yoon’s impeachment in December. Electing a new leader through a popular vote is a major step toward stabilizing the country. But whoever wins the election will lead a country in crisis.
South Korea’s export-driven economy has all but stopped growing. It will likely hurt further under President Trump’s steep tariffs. The new leader must mend ties with China, South Korea’s biggest trading partner, to spur exports and economic growth. But the United States, its only military ally, is demanding that South Korea help contain China.
And South Koreans are more divided than ever. All candidates called for “national unity,” recognizing a deepening political polarization as one of the biggest challenges the country faced.
But during the campaign, they indulged in stoking fear and indignation against each other. Mr. Lee called for Mr. Yoon and the People Power Party to be punished for “insurrection.” Mr. Kim warned that if elected, Mr. Lee would join hands with his giant Democratic Party, which has a large parliamentary majority, to create a “dictatorship.”
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea.
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